Microsoft Watch from Mary Jo Foley reports FoxPro Faithful Await Microsoft ‘Sedna’. “This week, FoxPro developers received a first test build of a new set of technologies, code-named Sedna, designed to make FoxPro interoperable with Windows Vista, Office 2007 and .Net.”
“Visual FoxPro developers, oft-overlooked by Microsoft, are about to get an infusion of new technologies aimed at making the FoxPro language interoperable with Windows Vista, Office 2007 and .Net.”
Archive | 2006
Apple ships new Mac Minis
OSNews points to two articles that juxtapose in a Point-CounterPoint fashion. What I read: in the first piece, the author is desperately trying to prove that Windows sucks less than before. Bugs are fixed. Bad driver models replaced. Security is tightened. This is incremental improvement, laudable, expected, but not compelling, and not worth the cost of the update, nor the incredibly long wait. Microsoft themselves have admitted that Vista sales will come through the purchase of new machines, not upgrades. This isn’t market choice, it’s monopolistic behavior.
The second article argues that Vista is a mess, and I agree. It’s not an operating system, it’s a software bundle that includes yet another incompatible operating system kernel, a new GUI engine and interface, and new half-apps (bundled applications with the good features removed).
It’s funny. In some ways, I see a parallel between Microsoft shipping this huge bunch of stuff (Media Players, backup software, networking, GUI, web browser, game subsystem, kernel) and cable TV providers shipping bundles of cable channels. Each insists it would be too hard or expensive to unbundle and provide the customer with a la carte choice. Each backs this up with some pretty questionable claims.
It’s about choice.
Why Windows Vista Won’t Suck. “There’s a lot of confusion about Windows Vista these days. Many online discussion forums have a great number of users who express no desire to upgrade to Vista. Sure, we’ve all seen the screenshots and maybe a video or two of Vista in action, but for many it only seems like new tricks for an old dog. Yeah, it’s got some fancy 3D effects in the interface, but OS X has been doing that for years now, and it’s still Windows underneath, right? The sentiment seems to be that Vista is another Windows ME. Perhaps part of the problem is that people just don’t know what Vista has in store for them.”
Also from OSNews, Why Windows Needs to Go Back to Basics. “Once upon a time, operating systems managed the resources of computers, and that was about it. But after the PC revolution, most software makers started subscribing to the theory that bigger means better. But does it?”
Apple ships new Mac Minis
Computerworld News notes Apple unveils Intel-powered Mac minis. “Apple Computer’s Mac mini became the company’s latest offering to make the transition to Intel processors today, with one of the two new models featuring a dual-core chip.”
Quick summary: Intel single-core 1.5 MHz, 512 Mb, 60 Gb, read-only DVD for $600. Intel dual-core 1.67, 512, 80, DVD-write, $800. Great boxes with infrared interfaces for remote control, could be neat system to add to your home theater stack.
Dartmouth Lake Sunapee Linux User Group tomorrow: Jonathan Linowes on Xaraya
Date: Thursday, March 2nd 7:00-9:00PM
Place: Dartmouth College, Carson Hall, Room L01
Presenters: Jonathan S. Linowes
Topic: Xaraya
Xaraya is an extensible, Open Source web application framework written in PHP and licensed under the GNU General Public License. Xaraya delivers the requisite infrastructure and tools to create custom web applications that include fully dynamic multi-platform Content Mangement Solutions (CMS). Xaraya’s modular, database independent architecture introduces tools that separate form, function, content, and design with on-the-fly extensions allowing greater control and versatility.
Jonathan will present an overview of Xaraya, its architecture, core modules, and extension modules, including a brief demonstration how to get started developing web sites using the Xaraya platform. Examples will be used from current live web sites.
Jonathan is principal of Parkerhill Technology Group, a strategic management and web development firm, and has over 25 years of entrepreneurial and technical experience ranging from small start-ups to multinational corporations. He holds a Masters degree in Media Technology from MIT, and serves on several boards including the Software Assocation of NH (SwANH), Amoskaeg Business Incubator in Manchester NH, MIT Enterprise Forum of NH, and North Country Council CEDS (economic development strategy). Jonathan lives in northern Grafton County on a retired dairy farm with his wife and 4 young children.
Malicious Virus proof-of-concept from Windows PC to Windows PDA
New virus can pass from PCs to mobile devices.
(InfoWorld) – “A security association is reporting what it says is the first virus that can pass from a [Windows — ted] PC to a [Windows — ted] mobile device and then erase files.”
Talk about interoperability! C#, Visual Studio .NET, ActiveSync, WindowsCE/MobileOS and Windows on the PC.
The Real Windows Vista
Over on the ProFox mailing list, Ed Leafe links to a new video showing off the “Real Windows Vista.” Absolutely hysterical and dead on. I, for one, cannot wait to experience the power of Microsoft Windows Vista. Wait! I already have!
This I Believe
NPR’s “This I Believe” program this morning featured Josh Rittenburg’s “Tomorrow Will Be a Better Day.” Wow. A very well-spoken sixteen-year-old.
MySQL acquires Netfrastructure and several key hires, new CTO
MySQL buys company, hires noted database architect.
(InfoWorld) – “My SQL has acquired a small Web application technology company and in the process hired its founder, Jim Starkey, a noted database software architect, MySQL announced on Monday.” By James_Niccolai@idg.com (James Niccolai), posted at InfoWorld: Top News
The State of Dabo, 2006
Ed Leafe, well-known in the FoxPro community as a former MVP and proprietor of the ProFox mailing list and OpenTech web sites, is speaking this weekend at the U.S. Python Conference on “The State of Dabo, Where we’re at, February 2006.” For those who haven’t seen it yet, dabo is a framework for rich-client, multi-tier, database-agnostic software development, similar to what Visual FoxPro promised. dabo runs on Mac OS X, Linux and Windows. The white paper looks great! At PyCon last year, Ed’s presentations were ranked highly. Wishing him great success this year as well!
MySQL OLEDB driver
I’ve been doing a lot of work with MySQL lately, developing in-house LAMP applications for clients to do data entry as well as internet-facing sites for data retrieval and processing. A couple of clients are querying their in-house MySQL database for mail merge, form fill-in and analysis. I’ve used the MyODBC driver available from the MySQL AB web site. They offer a number of connectors, including ODBC, JDBC, a C interface. I was surprised to see they did not offer an OLEDB interface. In a recent conversation on Ed Leafe’s OpenTech forum, Sam Thorton pointed out that an OLEDB provider is available at SourceForge.net. Cool! I’ll have to check it out.